Amsterdam, Netherlands

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Visited: April 2010

For the Amsterdam trip I was traveling with my good friend Cookie. Now, Cookie is a scrapbooker extraordinaire, who creates gorgeous pages. As such, she understands the need for paper matter and two copies of each (so you have both sides to work with). It got to the point where we just grabbed it all and divvied it up that evening once we got back to the hotel room. This is a somewhat random selection of journal pages from that trip covering restaurants, trains, hotels (we were in two hotels and a hostel over the course of our stay), and assorted miscellaneous stuff. The colorful image of the houses was actually something I cut out of a magazine long after I returned home, but I liked it and it's of Amsterdam, so I used it.

Tokyo, Japan

Location: Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
Visited: March 2010

I cannot say enough good things about the Ghibli Museum. You weren't allowed to take photographs inside, so these pages (and the postcards we purchased) are literally the only images I have of the place. As longtime fans of animation in general and Miyazaki in particular, my husband and I knew we absolutely could not skip this one. And it ended up being quite probably our favorite stop on the entire trip.

Yuma, AZ

Location: Yuma, Arizona, USA
Visited: February 2008

This is where it all started. As I mentioned in the intro post, I started pasting stuff into a journal during a long business trip to southwestern Arizona. I didn't have a whole lot of time off, but one Sunday my coworker and I had a good time visiting the Yuma Territorial Prison, the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge nearby, and the Castle Dome Mines Museum, and went for a scenic drive through Kofa Wildlife Refuge. The terrain was absolutely gorgeous, though the road wasn't exactly meant for vehicular traffic. We had a blast.

Upper Valley, VT/NH

Location: Vermont and New Hampshire, USA
Visited: January 2009

I was still rather new to the whole glue stick tourism game when I visited my sister up in the wilds of New England in January. This page was made mostly from a single pamphlet, but I tried to include all the various places we visited during that short trip. I hope to go again in the spring.

Fort Marcy, VA

Location: Fort Marcy, McLean, Virginia

I don't remember when I visited Fort Marcy, only that it took me forever to find the friggin' entrance, which is only accessible (and indeed, only even visible) from one direction on the George Washington Parkway. Good thing U-turns are legal in this state.

MDRF

Location: Maryland Renaissance Festival, Crownsville, Maryland, USA
Visited: annually

This particular page is from the 2010 MDRF but we try to put in an appearance at least once a year. Many of our friends are performers, cast members, and Rennies, so there's always someone to gab with. And, most importantly, a large selection of fried foods on sticks. Mustn't forget that.

Tokyo, Japan

Location: Meguro Parasitological Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Date: April 2010

Because he is a deeply disturbed man, my darling husband was quite interested to visit the only parasite museum in the world during our trip to Japan. He was especially keen to see the 28-foot tapeworm (the white thing with the blue background). The place turned out to be quite tiny - the interior photos shown here, including the gift shop, are all in one moderately size room - but completely unforgettable. The stamp in the upper right corner was one of many collectible stamps we came across at assorted attractions and train stations.

Leesburg, VA

Location: Ball's Bluff Battlefield, Leesburg, Virginia, USA
Visited: September 2009

After a long day of snarfing all around Harpers Ferry and northwestern Virginia, I decided to stop by Ball's Bluff Battlefield Regional Park in Leesburg. My original intent was to walk the short Battlefield Interpretive Trail Loop, which was basically out to the cemetery and back. Somehow, upon leaving the cemetery, I ended up on the wrong path. The map said all the paths looped back to the parking lot eventually, so I just kept walking. As you can see from my Sharpie dots, I managed to get on the only path that was not a loop: the Potomac Heritage Trail. By the time I finally emerged from the woods, I was in Edwards Landing Park. The parking lot dumped me out into a generic suburban housing development, where luckily I happened upon a lovely couple out walking their dog who explained how to get back to my car - an additional 2-mile walk. Not an adventure I'm soon to forget!

Utrecht, Netherlands

Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands
Visited: April 2010

I cannot say enough nice things about the beautiful town of Utrecht and the lovely local BookCrossers who showed us around. I actually made multiple spreads of Utrecht but only scanned in this one because it had the most variety to it.

Grand Canyon

Location: Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Visited: February 2008

While on a business trip to Flagstaff, we made a side trip up to the Grand Canyon. So gorgeous! We didn't stay long, so I starred the locations we actually visited. These days I always have a notebook of some sort with me for the Passport stamps. As it was, I used the park brochure they gave us at the visitor center, which I cut up later.

Fort Worth, TX

Location: Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Visited: July 2008

I had a free day during a business trip to Dallas, so I stopped by the famous Stockyards. Lunch was at Riscky's, where I ate calf fries before I knew what they were (and I can't really say whether I would have eaten them had I known). But I have no regrets! The weather was beautiful and my waitress was totally awesome. One day I'll go back when I have a little more time to plan ahead.

Philadelphia, PA

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Visited: September 2009

One Labor Day weekend my husband and I decided to visit Philly. We saw the famous stuff (Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell), ate the traditional stuff (Pat's; next time we'll try Geno's), saw the creepy stuff (the Insectarium - not recommended), did the touristy stuff (a Star Trek exhibit at The Franklin Institute - a little disappointing for the price), and experienced the truly unforgettable stuff (Eastern State Penitentiary and the Mutter Museum). All in all, a great trip.

P.S. - I'm pretty sure you can't snarf my journal page. :P

Osaka, Japan

Location: Osaka Castle, Osaka, Japan
Visited: March 2010

Some trips will require multiple posts. When my husband and I vacationed in Japan last year, I brought a special journal just for that trip, which I started my writing in, then pasted my trip recap into, then used as a gluebook for the tons and tons of paper material we picked up. These pages are from that journal, but only from a single day of the trip: our visit to Osaka Castle. Though originally built in the 1580s, these days it is entirely a modern museum, with the exterior completely rebuilt to look like it did back in the day. Despite being what some might view as artificial, the castle is stunning and the exhibits are memorable. Too bad it was pouring rain the day we visited.

Library of Congress

Location: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA
Visited: April 2009

The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the entire world. Though I've lived in the DC area since 2003, I'd never actually been inside until the spring of 2009. And it's absolutely beautiful. This is one of my rare spreads where I pasted just about zero text from the pamphlet, instead letting the photographs do all the talking.

Cumberland, MD

Location: Cumberland, Maryland, USA
Visited: August, 2011

This is a good example of picking a place at random and just going. Cumberland is a gorgeous mountain town between two and three hours from me. In addition to the lovely scenery, I also stopped by the Western Maryland Railroad Station and the surprisingly varied Allegany Museum. I unfortunately did not find enough paper matter to fill more than a single page, but it's definitely a town I hope to visit again someday.

Hello and Welcome!

Welcome to my brand new blog, The Glue Stick Tourist, devoted to my somewhat strange hobby of gluebooking my travels. Be sure to check out the FAQ if you're curious.

It all started in 2008 with a longish trip to Yuma, Arizona. I purchased a cheap blank book for drawing, but soon found that I would come nowhere near to filling it before I headed home. So I picked up some scissors and glue at the local dollar store and started pasting down assorted paper matter I picked up on my wanderings. It became a habit, and now I do it every place I visit.

And I do like to visit places. My wanderlust has gained a little bit of direction thanks to Markeroni and the eternal hunt for historical landmarks, but that doesn't change the fact that I will often just pick a place on the map and go. Not all of these places are somewhere someone might consider exciting; often I have no other reason for going somewhere than the fact that I'd never been. But I've found that many places have their own local attractions, and attractions come with tickets and pamphlets and maps.

I take photographs, of course, and keep a thorough diary, but gluebooks hold a different sort of interest for me. I'm going to pick up the pamphlets regardless (half the time they're shoved into your hands as you walk in, after all), and when I get home I can either throw them away or put them in a drawer, neither of which means I'm likely to ever look at them ever again. But my gluebooks, on the other hand, those I do look at. They evoke memories in ways that photographs and journal entries don't.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking at these. I've decided to post my existing backlog of pages in somewhat random order, starting with tomorrow. Once I've exhausted those there will be some silent times until I take my next trip. But, for my own sanity's sake, I do hope to be able to post at least once a month.

Happy travels!